


Something's Gotta Give

by ScullyLovesQueequeg



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Complete, F/M, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-14
Updated: 2014-02-14
Packaged: 2018-02-13 23:15:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2168961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScullyLovesQueequeg/pseuds/ScullyLovesQueequeg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scully won't stop getting gifts for Valentine's Day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something's Gotta Give

"I was pretty sure that was our guy," Mulder said, tapping on the desk with his pencil and looking up at his partner. She had her arms folded over her chest, though her expression was not her usual serious one. Mulder was leaned back in his chair, his feet on the desk. "I never considered his behavior was caused by PCP."

"Yeah well, not everything is paranormal," Scully drawled, leaning against Mulder's desk. "At least we won't have to go to court until March. His arraignment is on Monday."  
  
He glanced up at her again, taking in her curves, and the way her hair fell on her shoulders. It took him all of a minute to recompose himself, before he wadded up a paper on his desk and took a shot from where he was sitting, to the waste basket. Out of the corner of her eye, Scully caught the movement, and made a move to bat it out of the air. The shot was intercepted and skidded towards the back of the office, just past her chair. Mulder sat upright, as Scully moved to retrieve the wadded paper ball. Her bouts of playfulness was rare, but were welcome to help break the monotony of the times they spent in the small basement office.  
  
"Hey, that reminds me," He started, watching her bend low to pick up the paper, "do you—" Before he could finish, his question was interrupted by the sharp rapping of knuckles on the door.  
  
"Yeah, come in." Mulder said, frowning a little, and mentally ruling out who would be visiting the office. A young looking man slipped inside with a bouquet of flowers and a box of chocolates. Mulder felt his heart sink when the delivery man said,  
  
"Which one of youse is Special Agent Scully?"  
  
Scully straightened up and made her way over to him, taking the flowers and thanking him.  
  
"You have a boyfriend I don't know about?" Mulder asked, though in a teasing manner. Scully shot a near venomous glance over at Mulder before setting the flowers down. She went to her wallet to give the  delivery man a small tip. He thanked her and bid Mulder a good morning before heading out of the office.  
  
Mulder got up and walked over to where she had set the flowers down. He wrinkled his nose at the smell, but inspected the bouquet for a card.  
  
Scully looked surprised, but not alarmed. "Did they leave a card?"  
  
"Yeah, but all it says is 'Happy Valentine's Day to my dearest agent with love.'." Mulder said taking a nasally tone, (presumably mocking the sender) and holding the newly extracted card between two fingers.  
  
Scully face flushed, but she asked, "You didn't send this?"  
  
"No, that would be ah, what's the word?--Unprofessional." Mulder said as he inspected the box of chocolates, and the flowers once again. He pulled out a particular chocolate and ate it.  
  
"I completely forgot it was Valentine's Day, to be honest. I never understood why we have a holiday for something we should be doing every day." Scully said, rummaging through her draw.  
  
"Yeah, I know. But the chocolate," Mulder said, bringing the card and the box of chocolates to his desk. "--somebody up there must like you. This ain't Hersey."  
  
Scully didn't even bother to stop him, as she examined the card with a magnifying glass that she had gotten from her drawer.  
  
"No?" She humored Mulder as she focused on the task in front of her.  
  
"No, it actually says this is Godiva. Gosh, no one gets _me_ Godiva."  
  
"You can have it, Mulder. I doubt you've left any for me anyways..." She muttered, although Mulder protested,  
  
"I left you the nasty caramel  & peanut butter ones. And some of these with the crunchy bits." He said, putting the box on the desk and folding his arms on his desk. He rested his head in his arms as he watched her examine the card.  
  
"What are you looking for, the Holy Grail?"  
  
"No," She answered, putting the magnifying glass down and the card. "I was looking for prints. I wonder who would send me these gifts?"  
  
"Who cares?" Mulder replied, though his tone indicated that he did. Scully blinked at him, a little surprised, so he continued, "I mean don't look a gift horse in the mouth, you know?"  
  
"True," Scully said, sliding the box closer to her and picking out a chocolate and nibbling on it, "But perhaps if the Trojans had, they wouldn't have been tricked so badly."  
  
"Yeah, well, if there was anything wrong with the chocolate, trust me, I'd be the first to know." Mulder scoffed gently, but sat up, and turned on his computer. Scully took the box with her to her corner of the office, and did the same, turning her computer on. A silence descended on the office as they both began their reports.  
  
  
The morning crawled by and would have passed unceremoniously, if not for the fact that there was another knock on the door. Both Mulder and Scully looked up, as the door opened. Yet another delivery man stood with flowers, and this time, a stuffed bear.  
  
"Yeah, says here I'm supposed to give to an Agent Scully?"  
  
Scully frowned, but got up to retrieve the flowers in addition to her gift. This time she didn't give a tip, but she set the flowers near the first bouquet and extracted the card. Cautiously, Mulder came up to her side, and she handed the card over for further inspection. She took the teddy bear back to where she had been sitting, and looked it over with a small smile. Mulder did not seem too pleased, but he did not say anything at the moment.  
  
"What's the card say?" She finally asked, when she noticed Mulder put the card back.  
  
"Oh, it's just Pendrell. He wants to take you to see a movie tonight or something, I didn't really look at it." Mulder remarked, although he said this a little too quickly, and Scully was left with the fleeting suspicion that he was unhappy. She watched as he made his way over to his desk.  
  
"Oh, I see."  
  
Mulder did not respond, and so she resumed her writing, every now and then glancing at him. He seemed focused on writing, and didn't seem to be upset so she shrugged it off.  
  
"What are you going to tell him? Are you going to go?" Mulder asked, after a couple minutes of silence, save for the soft clicking of keys. The expression on his face was nearly neutral, with the exception of a small frown.  
  
"I don't know. Pendrell is nice but..." _Not funny, not as smart, not as charming as you, Mulder._ "I'm just not sure about what I want to do tonight. I'll have to give him a call, I suppose."  
  
Mulder did not reply, but the frown deepened, just a little.  
  
  
Noon came around, and Mulder pushed away from his desk and stood up. He allowed himself a full bodied stretch and a yawn, before grabbing his jacket from behind his chair. Scully stood up as well, and went to get her jacket as well.  
  
"I guess I'll see you at one." Mulder remarked, watching her as she put her jacket on. She looked so small with the padded shoulders and large lapels. They were always _so professional_.  
  
"Actually, I was thinking of having lunch with you. Where are you planning to go?" Her question jarred him from his thoughts of her in her blouse.  
  
"I was going to go to the food court and have lunch in the cafeteria, actually. I imagine the restaurants are going to be packed, what with it being Valentine's day and all. Plus, I've got to get out of this office. The smell of flowers is turning my stomach."  
  
"Well, would you mind if I went?"

Mulder shrugged, though secretly, he was relieved that she didn't have any other plans.  
  
"No, I don't mind." Mulder said, with a half smile. He grabbed his ID from the desk and headed on out the door, with Scully not far behind.

When they got back from the cafeteria, Scully had been sharing a story with Mulder, but stopped mid-sentence when she saw that the door to Mulder's office was ajar. Mulder noticed it too, and stepped in front of her, opening the door slowly. Agent Pendrell was standing in the office, with his back to the door, looking over at the various pictures Mulder had hung up in his office.  
  
"Can I help you?" Mulder's voice was laced with tension, and Pendrell jumped in surprise, turning to face them.  
  
"Oh! I... sorry, I wanted to see if Dana--I mean Agent Scully was here, I didn't get an answer from her about going to the movies... the door was unlocked so I let myself in," Pendrell admitted sheepishly. Mulder felt bad, and offered a smile.  
  
"It's okay, I'm just a little overly paranoid, I guess." Mulder said, heading into the office, and over to his desk. Scully made a motion for Pendrell to join her outside and she closed the door behind them, so as not to disturb Mulder.  
  
Mulder could hear Scully open the door to come back inside. Pendrell remained at the threshold, but when Mulder looked up, he waved nervously.  
  
"You're a lucky guy, Mulder. If I worked with Agent Scully, I'd take her to dinner every week. Hey, Dana, if you're tired of working down here in the X-Files, you know where you can find me." Pendrell said, and Scully rubbed at her face, trying to hide her exasperation.  
  
"I'll keep that in mind, thanks. If she wants to join the gathering of the higher minds, I think she knows where she can go." Mulder murmured sarcastically. Scully closed the door behind her, and the both of them were left with an awkward silence.  
  
"I don't know if I should go out at all tonight..." Scully mused idly.  
  
"Then don't. --Actually I don't really care. Don't listen to me. Go out with Pendrell or something." Mulder said, though not in an unkind way. His tone suggested in difference, though his body language was akin to frustration, as he jabbed the keys on his keyboard. "It's none of my business what goes on in your personal life."  
  
"I'm not going with him." Scully said, sinking in to her chair that she kept beside Mulder's desk. He glanced over quickly, but resumed his frustrated typing.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"I thought you didn't care." She replied, glancing over, with an arched brow. This prompted a smile from him, and he looked away sheepishly.  
  
"I don't. I'm just making conversation."  
  
"Mulder, if I didn't know any better, I could have sworn you were upset, or maybe even a little jealous, though I for the life of me, cannot find a reason why."  
  
"I'm not. I just don't understand why you're suddenly so popular. I get the impression that people think because you're working with me, you hate it down here. Do people feel like they have to 'rescue' you from this assignment?"  
  
"I don't know how 'people' feel. I couldn't care any less about hypothetical people that I don't know. I know how I feel--incredibly lucky--and I know that I don't need to be rescued, but how do /you/ feel?" She asked, sitting forward.  
  
"Scully, you know how I feel. I feel--I feel lucky too. I've worked alone for a long time. I never really got along well enough with others. My drive kind of chases everyone else away. But I like you. You're smart, you're honest, and you use science to answer questions you may have. You don't take things at face value, you validate my work and keep it honest. You're not just a valuable partner to me, you're also someone I could call a friend. I don't have a lot of those. So it bothers me that people feel that they kind of have to rescue you."  
  
Scully didn't know what to say. It was one of those rare times that she was aware of the gravity of the words that were being said; the subtext was that he was expressing his appreciation and his respect for her. There was was silence that fell between them, and Scully was still at a loss for words.

"Mulder, I--" Her response was interrupted by  yet another knock on the door.

"Oh for crying out loud... we've had more visitors in one day than I have had in the last 3 years of you working here." Mulder muttered, as yet another delivery man came inside. When he spotted Scully, he made an insistent gesture that she take the large teddy bear he was carrying.

"You're Dana Scully right? This is from a uh, a Greg Borland." Scully rose to her feet to take the teddy bear and deposited it in one of the other chairs that was situated in front of Mulder's desk. The delivery man left them, and Scully waltzed back over to her seat.

"So. Who's Greg?" Mulder asked, his voice teetering on amusement and irritation.

"Mr. Borland is a widowed man that lives in my building. I think he's just down the hall. I've watched his son Tommy once or twice."

"He knows you're FBI?"

"Tommy must have told him. I showed Tommy my badge once. Let him hold it." Scully mused. Mulder snorted, as he continued to type.

"You've been writing that all morning. I've never seen you actually work so hard on writing a report before." Scully said, sitting up a little and suddenly incredibly interested in what he was doing.

"I'm trying to finish it before I have to leave today. I don't want to have to take this home with me." He said, glancing over at Scully.

"Oh, you have any plans for tonight?"

Mulder hesitated. He had wanted to ask Scully to have dinner with him, just as a friend. He already had lunch with her, and he was sure that she was probably going to go somewhere with Pendrell.

"No." Mulder finally said, though he seemed ready to say more. "I just don't want to be doing this all weekend. I kind of wanted to visit my mother up in Massachusetts tomorrow."

"...if you're not going to do anything tonight, maybe you'll want to come over for some Chinese?" 

Mulder looked over at Scully, and expected her to rescind the offer, but she only smiled at him.

"Are you asking me on a date?"

Scully took a moment to answer, presumably thinking of a comeback before she said, "No, that would be-- oh, what's the word?--Unprofessional. No, I need help taking these gifts upstairs."

"Okay then. I'll come over to help you with these things." Mulder said, trying to hide a smile.

 


End file.
